Four ‘Caps called up for CONCACAF Men’s U-17 Championship – Whitecaps FC
Canada Soccer announced on Tuesday that four Whitecaps FC players have been named to the roster for the upcoming 2017 CONCACAF Men’s U-17 Championship. Coach Paul Stalteri has selected 20 players for the international competition that runs Apri 21 to May 7 in Panama.

Atlanta United learning to close out games – AJC
Atlanta United hasn’t given up a goal in the second half of its past four games, a stretch that started after allowing two in its season-opening defeat to New York Red Bulls.

Soccer standout on European tour – Maple Ridge News
Maple Ridge player Emma Felgner gets the soccer trip of a lifetime this month, as her club team does a European tour.

April 29th Coaching Workshop to Support Kids with Autism in Sport – BCSA
BC Soccer in partnership with Surrey United Soccer Club, Canucks Autism Network, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, City of Surrey, and Sport Surrey will be holding a coaching workshop supporting kids with autism at Cloverdale Athletic Park and the Cloverdale Recreation Center on April 29th 2017.

Delta opens in tough against Elgin Park – Delta Optimist
It was a daunting task last week when a young Delta Pacers squad opened its senior girls’high school soccer season against Elgin Park. And despite a 2-0 loss, Delta played well against the Surrey school that is one year removed from a fourth-place finish at the provincials and will likely be among the contenders again this season.

Sports history steeped in Saanich – Saanich News
Longtime Cordova Bay resident Dave Unwin, 82, is a Greater Victoria sports historian and former member of the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame. He’s also the author of From the Sidelines 1896-1996: A 100 Year’s View of Vancouver Island Soccer and the Victoria West Athletic Association.

Get To Know Your TSS Rovers: Tim Hickson – AFTN
If WFC2 had existed several seasons before it did, then Tim Hickson’s footballing journey may have taken a slightly different path from what it did for the Whitecaps Residency alumni.

REVIEW: The Miracle Mile. Stories of the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games – BC BookLook
Author Jason Beck is curator of the BC Sports Hall of Fame in BC Place Stadium, Vancouver, and convenor two years ago of an excellent exhibition about the 1954 Games. In his first book, he proves to be a meticulous researcher, a compelling story-teller, and a crafty realist who knows how to hook his readers. Watch how, two pages into the book, he uses filmic technique to evoke the arriving athletes’ youthful buzz and give period colouring and costuming, but then smartly moves his camera in to introduce his stars.

Becoming a BC Soccer Referee – BCSA
Whether you are an experienced referee new to British Columbia or if you are new to the discipline of refereeing BC Soccer Assoc. has a clinic and a pathway for you. The minimum age to become a referee is 12 years old (small sided) and 14 years old (11-a-side). Please enjoy the short video showcasing some Referee programs that BC Soccer offers and continue below for more on how to become a referee in BC!

To our Readers: A Choice – BC Soccer Web
Soccer has brought us to the United States many times. It’s a great place with decent people. We especially look forward to our Cascadia trips to Seattle and Portland. They’re incredible cities with wonderful supporters. That’s why it was so disheartening to see chaos and fear take hold in the airports and borders of our neighbours to the south.

2016 BC Soccer Provincial Cup Photo Galleries – BC Soccer Web
Westhills Stadium & Goudy Park in Langford hosted the 2016 BC Soccer Adult Provincial Cup Finals. It was a thrilling weekend of soccer on Vancouver Island that saw seven champions crowned. Richmond FC & Surrey Pegasus qualified for the National Championships this Fall in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Both Coquitlam Metro-Ford Masters & Classics sides qualified for the Western Canadian Masters Championships in Winnipeg, Manitoba. In all, it was a clean sweep for teams from the VMSL & MWSL. Monique Lamoureux & Bill Currie from BC Soccer Web were on location that weekend, capturing the all the action.

Free Physiotherapy Clinical Trial for Achilles Pain at UBC – UBC Centre for Hip Health & MobilityDo you have Achilles pain? Interested in free Physiotherapy? If yes, join our clinical trial to look at the effectiveness of intramuscular stimulation (IMS), a form of acupuncture therapy, in treating Achilles tendon pain.

The BC Soccer Web Guide to Empire Field – BC Soccer Web
Empire Fields and Plateau Sports Park is the lofty and formal name given to Vancouver’s newest addition to the soccer scene. Yet, anyone who’s ever kicked or carried both kinds of footballs around these parts knows the place by heart.

Send your Soccer News to BC Soccer Web! – BC Soccer Web
BC Soccer Web is the hub for soccer in British Columbia. We want to share your soccer news with the entire province, and you can help by letting us know! We want your match reports, club news, league standings, and info on upcoming tournaments and clinics. Whether you submit links to existing news on the web, or your own original writing, we want to share it with the soccer community in B.C.

CANADA SOCCER NEWS

Canada’s joint World Cup bid something to get behind – Star Phoenix
It has since been a time of cleansing for the sport and its governing bodies. This led to an announcement that would hit home. Perhaps the biggest win in Canadian soccer was not on the pitch, but off it. Canadian businessman Victor Montagliani was voted in as our region’s president of North America, Central America and the Caribbean — a place that had been full of corruption for the better part of three decades.

Canada women happy with European tour efforts – CONCACAF
Although a late goal gave host Germany a 2-1 win over his team in a women’s international friendly on Sunday, Canada head coach John Herdman left the Steigerwaldstadion satisfied.

Glanbrook’s Don Clowes enters Hamilton Soccer Hall of Fame – The Sachem
Don Clowes poses with one of the children’s nets at the Glanbrook Youth Soccer Club in Glanbrook. Clowes has been involved with Glanbrook soccer since 1980, sharing his passion for the sport with children in the community. On May 12, Clowes will be inducted into the Hamilton Soccer Hall of Fame.

Alberta 2017 Women in Soccer Conference – Alberta Soccer Association
The soccer community needs more strong, skilled women in leadership roles – and this unique conference was created with that in mind!

Nepean sports dome falls flat – CBC
The Superdome Sports Centre in Ben Franklin Park deflated while people were inside on Monday afternoon, but the sports facility’s operators say no one was injured.

Walking Soccer coming to Ontario Soccer Centre – Ontario Soccer
The Ontario Soccer Centre kicked off a new program this week. Walking Soccer, already being embraced by clubs in Ontario, allows those who have been life-long lovers of the sport with the ability to continue playing the game they love. The rules are the same, with the one caveat: that you cannot move faster than a walking pace.

PROVIDENCE PARK, PORTLAND, OR

USL Television Network Debuts in 17 Markets – USL
The United Soccer League (USL) – the largest Division II professional league in the world and longest standing member of the U.S. Soccer Federation – today debuts the USL Television Network, featuring local broadcast agreements in 17 unique markets.

NASHVILLE SC NAMES GARY SMITH AS FIRST HEAD COACH – Nashville SC
Nashville SC has landed an MLS Cup-winning head coach in Gary Smith, who will take the helm of the professional club as it prepares for its inaugural season in the United Soccer League in 2018.

USL Discipline Report – Week 3 – USL
Five players were issued one-game suspensions and issued undisclosed fines this past week. FC Cincinnati’s Paul Nicholson was sent off for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity as the final defender during Sunday’s 2-0 loss to Bethlehem Steel FC. He will miss Saturday’s home opener against Saint Louis FC on Saturday.

WOMEN’S SOCCER NEWS

NWSL: Seattle Reign – 2017 Season Preview – MLS Multiplex
After a year with a slow start and several hurdles, the Seattle Reign are looking forward to starting anew in 2017, with aspirations of a first NWSL title.

Portland Thorns season preview: the best is yet to come – The Equalizer
Last year at this point, after the Thorns hired Mark Parsons away from the Washington Spirit, most pre-season analysis split down the middle: either the Thorns were the team to beat in 2016, or the team wouldn’t gel.

The World According to Weimer: Good Habits – Empire of Soccer
Preseason is over. The 2017 National Women’s Soccer League season is here. That means we are sailing smoothly into our own routines we’ll be able to uphold for at least six or seven months. This brings me to one of my favorite books, “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg.

Women’s World Cup preliminary round report – UEFA
Kazakhstan, Albania, Israel, the Faroe Islands and best runners-up Moldova will progress to the qualifying group stage after coming through the preliminary round.

Women’s football on the cusp on something big – The Irish Times
Women’s soccer has come on hugely in recent decades. For a man who was brought up at a time when girls could barely kick a football – or more to the point, were barely allowed to kick a football – it was a genuine eye-opener to see these wonderfully strong and athletic young women, most of them amateurs, perform at a level not that far below the highly paid full-time professionals of the men’s game. They are powerful role models for girls growing up in these thankfully more emancipated times.

Dybala outshines Messi in Juve’s big win over Barcelona – Sportsnet
Paulo Dybala bagged a first half brace, Gianluigi Buffon made a word class save, and the MSN trio was neutralized, as Juventus took a commanding lead in this two-legged series in pushing Barcelona to the brink of elimination.

Bob Bradley ‘angry’ with Swansea City owners – SBI
The American coach says he is “angry” with the Swansea owners Jason Levien and Steve Kaplan for what he perceives as an admission that his hiring was a mistake. Bradley was appointed as Swansea’s manager in October, but was fired on Dec. 27 after just 11 games in charge.

Budget Problems and Government Ownership in Russian Football – Fultbolgrad
Budget problems for some Russian clubs has meant that once again the oddity of the Russian Football Premier League schedule has been a major topic in our weekly Futbolgrad Podcast. Russia made the switch from the spring to fall season to the more commonly used European fall to spring of the following year calendar during the 2011-12 season.

VIDEO ASSISTANT REFEREES (VAR) EXPERIMENT – IFAB
The aim of the experiment is not to achieve 100% accuracy for all decisions as there is no desire to destroy the essential flow and emotions of football which result from the game’s almost non-stop action and the general absence of lengthy stoppages. The philosophy is “minimum interference – maximum benefit”.